Watch This Face - Sarah Fagan

The Age

Friday September 26, 2008

Roslyn Grundy

A young winemaker is helping to change the taste of Australian sauvignon blanc and chardonnay.

When people ask Sarah Fagan how she got into winemaking, she obliges them with a story about a burgundy she sampled with her parents when she was 16 or 17. Truth is, there was no Eureka moment. Rather, it was a gradual awakening of interest, and Fagan, who turns 28 this month, can't recall many details about that white wine.

"She's one of the most gifted young winemakers I've ever met," says her boss, De Bortoli Yarra Valley's chief winemaker Steve Webber. "She's edgy, she's got flair and she's got great attention to detail in the technical aspects ... I think a lot of people are beginning to recognise some of the cool things she's doing."

Those "cool things" include a signature sauvignon blanc that wine show judge and importer Lester Jesberg believes sets the Australian standard for the variety, chardonnays that attract adjectives such as "cerebal", "elegant" and "complex", and a yet-to-be-released sparkling wine that bends all the rules.

Fagan grew up in Cowra, central New South Wales, on a property her family has farmed for five generations. After leaving school, she embarked on an agricultural science degree before switching to wine science at Charles Sturt University. She quickly realised that if she wanted to make good wine, she would have to taste good wine. "To make really impressive wine, art's always got to be number one. Science is still going to be there but you've got to have a feel for what you want in the finished wine and work back from there."

She worked for two vintages at De Bortoli in the Yarra Valley and six months at the small but influential Californian winery Littorai, planning to head north for the ski season in Whistler, Canada, when Steve Webber phoned with an irresistible job offer.

"When I left, I was just a cellarhand but when I came back, I was a winemaker,'' says Fagan. "That was a pretty steep learning curve.''

Webber put the then 24-year-old in charge of sauvignon blanc. "I thought, 'Bloody fantastic - the last thing I really like drinking'." But when she realised that Webber wanted to make full-bodied, minerally sauvignon like those from France's Loire Valley, rather than the green, herbaceous New Zealand style, Fagan embraced the challenge. The resulting De Bortoli Yarra Valley Reserve Release Sauvignon has been described as "restrained" and "subtle", glowing praise for the variety.

Fagan's reward was to be given charge of her favourite white, chardonnay, a variety she acknowleges divides people. "I'm in the delicate, elegant, refined camp, not the big and powerful camp," she says. "Chardonnay is changing in Australia and winemakers are going for more flinty characters."

Would she like to own her own vineyard? "Maybe in 10 years' time,'' says Fagan. "At my age, I've still got a lot of things to see and learn before I head down that path."

On the way, she would like to work in France for a few years. "Burgundy works beautifully because not too far away you've got Val d'Isere, Chamonix and all those good skiing places."

© 2008 The Age

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